I was especially intrigued to learn about kissing’s power to lift the mood. Demirjian explains that kissing stimulates the feel-good chemicals in the brain, mainly serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin. Kissing boosts your self-esteem by making you feel loved and connected. A German study even found that men who were kissed by their wives before leaving for work made more money.

It turns out hugging has its own benefits. A research study at the University of North Carolina has found that hugging can dramatically lower blood pressure and raise levels of oxytocin, one of the feel-good hormones stimulated by kissing that helps a person chill out, relax, breastfeed, and orgasm, although not all at the same time. The women in the study that got more hugs from their husbands had much higher levels of oxytocin, and had systolic blood pressure that was 10 mm/Hg lower than women with low oxytocin levels.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Therese Borchard

Therese Borchard is the founder of Project Beyond Blue, an online community for people with chronic depression and anxiety. She is associate editor at PsychCentral.com, and a contributor to Yahoo!, CNN.com, The...read more

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